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2- Axis CNC Cutting Acrylic Lathe Wanted

MarcusDRobinson

Plastic
Joined
May 20, 2019
I work for a medical manufacturing company based out of Florida. We are looking to add to our production line. We currently cut acrylic parts. The product we produce is called an IOL (IntraOcularLens). These medical parts are then put into the eye to replace the eyes natural lens. A lathe we are looking for is 2-axis. It needs to be precise and cut from one side of the acrylic part to the middle and raise. The first cut is what gives the lens the Focus. (Ex: Glasses - They have a convex or concave shape to fix the patients sight)

Current lathes used:
Optoform 40
ALMe Lathe | DAC International

YouTube
YouTube

Basically all the lathe does is cut from the side to the middle and raise up a specific amount.
This gives the piece of acrylic the diopter power. (this needs to be extremely extremely precise)

Diopter - a unit of refractive power that is equal to the reciprocal of the focal length (in meters) of a given lens.

Any information that anyone can give me would be appreciated and if anyone has questions or advice please let me know. We have older lathes that work great. The new DAC Intl Lathe is air bearings our older DAC Intl Lathes are grease. Both work great.

I am going to attempt to build a CNC lathe that can perform these functions. If anyone would like to help don't hesitate to contact me.

If you have information regarding old/cheap lathes that will work for me/us please let me know.
 
Marcus,

Since you are talking about possibly building such a lathe yourself, I think you should try to talk to Dan Gelbart, he has done something similar. You can see it at this link:


He is into optic. He used to be a member here I think. I don't know if he looks here anymore. But you certainly can't go wrong by trying to pick his brain a bit.

Jacques
 
...I am going to attempt to build a CNC lathe that can perform these functions. If anyone would like to help don't hesitate to contact me.

If you have information regarding old/cheap lathes that will work for me/us please let me know.

NYC CNC walked through a DIY lathe build on their YouTube channel. Not sure if it will meet your accuracy requirements, but might be useful...

Here’s a link the the first video in the series:
YouTube
 








 
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